Is Fiji Expensive? Revealing Our Fiji Travel Costs! — Transcript

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1. 0:00can you travel Fiji on a budget that is
2. 0:02the challenge that we set ourselves for
3. 0:04the week that we've spent here and we
4. 0:05said right from the very start we were
5. 0:07going to track every single scent so
6. 0:09we're going to share all of those travel
7. 0:10costs and we're going to break them down
8. 0:12into seven different categories so just
9. 0:14to catch you up if you're new around
10. 0:16here we have just spent the most
11. 0:18interesting and epic week in Fiji
12. 0:20attempting to travel on a budget but
13. 0:22today we're going to explain how it went
14. 0:24and if it's possible and if there is a
15. 0:26balance between going kind of budget or
16. 0:28affordable luxury without needing to
17. 0:29step up to that sort of dinner hour
18. 0:31price point starting with the most
19. 0:32expensive thing accommodation if you
20. 0:35didn't watch we probably should explain
21. 0:37the two styles of how we traveled right
22. 0:39yeah so we started off like super budget
23. 0:42and we stayed at a place that you can
24. 0:44kind of backpack at and they've got
25. 0:46hostel starting at $40 a night with
26. 0:49shared bathrooms of course but yeah we
27. 0:50had no idea that you could do that no
28. 0:52what we've kind of figured out through
29. 0:54this trip is that you can actually
30. 0:55backpack Fiji we were just thinking like
31. 0:57budget yeah so we did that we didn't
32. 0:59stay in super budget that certain in our
33. 1:01prices we went one step up into the uh
34. 1:04private room with a unique kind of
35. 1:06outdoor bathroom but still you get all
36. 1:08of the same Vibes and the coolness of
37. 1:10being somewhere beach front so that was
38. 1:12nice and then we kind of went for we
39. 1:14were curious is there a secondary option
40. 1:17before you jump up to full scale festar
41. 1:20Resort yeah and we found it we're in
42. 1:21like we call it affordable luxury at a
43. 1:25resort and we've got a deal that was
44. 1:27sort of kind of allinclusive right yeah
45. 1:30we got breakfast lunch and dinner
46. 1:32included which offsets a lot of costs
47. 1:35yeah so we booked that through luxury
48. 1:36escapes and we're not affiliated with
49. 1:38and everything we spent all of our own
50. 1:39money to do this to come and investigate
51. 1:40and like when we check out we're going
52. 1:42to have tiny amounts of money to spend
53. 1:44on basically a couple of Coke Zeros and
54. 1:45a few beers we'll do a bit more of a
55. 1:47comparison at the end about how those
56. 1:48two accommodations worked out but
57. 1:50essentially yes you totally can do
58. 1:53[Music]
59. 1:55it next up activities and tours we did
60. 1:59three different tours and because we
61. 2:01stayed somewhere cheap we got the
62. 2:02advantage of being able to get a little
63. 2:05bit of a discount and obviously like
64. 2:06when you're staying at a cheaper place
65. 2:08the activities and tools that they run
66. 2:09have to kind of be in line with the
67. 2:11people that are staying there very good
68. 2:12point yeah so just as a comparison the
69. 2:16no how many hours was it 5 to 6 hour
70. 2:18boat tour that we did to yua is that how
71. 2:21they pronounce it yua Island we paid 150
72. 2:25Fijian when we stayed at our first
73. 2:27accommodation a beach house this place
74. 2:30is offering the exact same toour for
75. 2:32$250 this is where we start splitting
76. 2:34hairs though because our boat was so so
77. 2:37and we got saturated on the way home
78. 2:40these boats are potentially nicer so
79. 2:43yeah you're potentially upgrading in
80. 2:45terms of quality as well but the goal
81. 2:47was can you do it on a budget and we
82. 2:49definitely found that and then we also
83. 2:50found two other tours right yeah so the
84. 2:52second tour that we did was a coffee
85. 2:54tour and we kind of were trying to find
86. 2:55something that was a little bit budget
87. 2:57still we spent how much on that that's
88. 2:59100 fian 100 fian but you got three
89. 3:02coffees included in the tour the tour
90. 3:04itself was amazing and learning about it
91. 3:06was insane it's wild Coffey we won't go
92. 3:08into it now but I'm like espresso is
93. 3:10obessed at the minute so for me I was I
94. 3:13could have done a whole Vlog on that
95. 3:14alone and we were buzzing by the end of
96. 3:15it but as if that wasn't enough we also
97. 3:17got to take home two 200 g packs of
98. 3:21coffee beans as well so you get a lot of
99. 3:23value back in terms of that tour as well
100. 3:26and it was so fun it was the third tour
101. 3:28we booked we tried to do through our
102. 3:30here and that was supposed to be a
103. 3:31village tour and they basically just
104. 3:33outright we showed up on the morning and
105. 3:34they were like h no we're not doing it
106. 3:36today okay Island time all right we'll
107. 3:39figure something else out so we didn't
108. 3:40want to leave without not doing a third
109. 3:42tour um and so we ended up booking one
110. 3:45of the top three highest rating tours
111. 3:48that we could find in all of Fiji over a
112. 3:51th000 ratings all five well five star
113. 3:54average um and that was ECOT TRS and
114. 3:58that was unfortunately expensive what we
115. 4:00got in the last minute luckily so that
116. 4:01was 200 I think it was I'll put on the
117. 4:03screen here I think it was 229 FGM and
118. 4:06that was a very cool day as well but
119. 4:08obviously at that uh lifted our our
120. 4:11pricing for this a lot you could lower
121. 4:13that significantly if you just stayed in
122. 4:16a resort definitely didn't go anywhere
123. 4:18but we wouldn't recommend that when you
124. 4:20are ready to go away on your next
125. 4:21Adventures what we do recommend is that
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150. 5:08next up is petrol and transportation and
151. 5:11this is where if you've watched the
152. 5:12Vlogs you'll know we made the decision
153. 5:14well in order to find Budget combination
154. 5:16you really have to get away from nandy
155. 5:18which is where the main airport is yeah
156. 5:19sick look at that
157. 5:21taxi dude go awesome so then you either
158. 5:25have to get a longer transfer or you're
159. 5:27more isolated so we opted to get a car
160. 5:30in order to have the freedom to drive
161. 5:32around so that's where the majority of
162. 5:34those costs come from yeah what are your
163. 5:36thoughts on it having a car yeah I think
164. 5:38it was like there's not there's barely
165. 5:41any other tourist driving cars by the
166. 5:42way so it's not a common thing to do
167. 5:44here but I think I would have gone crazy
168. 5:46if we didn't have a car yes I loved
169. 5:48having the freedom and being able to
170. 5:50find those like Cheap Eats or going and
171. 5:53finding coffee I would think like if
172. 5:55you're just in the resort some people
173. 5:56love that and that's cool but for me
174. 5:58personally and I think Dana as well like
175. 6:00we just like being able to go and
176. 6:02explore freedom and you saw so much
177. 6:05interesting stuff by driving around and
178. 6:07stopping at local supermarkets and
179. 6:09buying beers and uh seeing kids playing
180. 6:12in the rain and I feel like we saw more
181. 6:14of Fiji because we rented a car but if
182. 6:17you went ultimate budget and you picked
183. 6:19up one of those packages you could get 5
184. 6:227even 8 nights accommodation just pay
185. 6:25for a transfer one way and then on the
186. 6:27return home and sure you're going to
187. 6:28have to drive 2 and 1 half or 3 hours on
188. 6:29that transfer but someone else is
189. 6:31driving and looking out the window so
190. 6:33you could strip that back by probably
191. 6:37$550 like I'm sure it probably $100 or
192. 6:39so either way something like that cuz
193. 6:41you could also catch the bus as well
194. 6:43true true that if you're going full
195. 6:44Backpacker mode then I think that's the
196. 6:46way to go cuz there was a a bus station
197. 6:49outside beach house where we stayed so
198. 6:51you could have had $40 accommodation
199. 6:54have caught the bus be chilling out on
200. 6:56the beach with breakfast included and
201. 6:57get cheap tours with a bun of other back
202. 7:00like it was cool that's cool to do it
203. 7:02that
204. 7:05way food which is not much because
205. 7:08obviously we are staying somewhere that
206. 7:10has breakfast lunch and dinner all
207. 7:12included and because we have the car we
208. 7:15could when we didn't want to eat here or
209. 7:16when we were at beach house we could
210. 7:18drive to places and find cheap eats yeah
211. 7:21Although our first Cheap Eats was a
212. 7:22really bad recommendation we ended up
213. 7:24with a pie which was so weird I think we
214. 7:26were there at like an odd time of the
215. 7:27day so there was like not much going on
216. 7:29our second recommendation was Crab Shack
217. 7:32and that is our favorite meal that we've
218. 7:34had in Fiji and again without the car we
219. 7:37would have never got there fish tacos
220. 7:39man so good the fish tacos are
221. 7:41incredible and the pricing comes down a
222. 7:43lot as well yeah um yeah so other other
223. 7:45than that I mean we spent a little bit
224. 7:47cuz dinners and lunches obviously
225. 7:48weren't included at the first
226. 7:50accommodation but the food again was way
227. 7:52cheaper there we were only spending 18
228. 7:54to 25 30 tops Fijian for decent sized
229. 7:58burgers and chips and yeah and
230. 8:00everywhere else including where we're
231. 8:01staying now is more expensive because
232. 8:03you're in a resort so um yeah I think
233. 8:07having the freedom helped but then also
234. 8:08if you bought a package and you just
235. 8:10stayed in your Resort you could just eat
236. 8:12every single meal here and not spend a
237. 8:13scent on any additional food so your
238. 8:15budget is literally the package you buy
239. 8:17up front
240. 8:18[Music]
241. 8:21yeah alcohol we spent 91 New Zealand
242. 8:25dolls that's not very much at all no we
243. 8:27didn't go full we didn't go full holiday
244. 8:30cocktail mode did we no I mean to put it
245. 8:32in perspective the cocktails at the
246. 8:35resort $28 outside of happy hour so
247. 8:37that's a decent cost um but when you go
248. 8:41to a local supermarket they are like
249. 8:44beers are like $350 or something like
250. 8:47that so and then beers here are $8 on
251. 8:49happy hour hour yeah so again it just
252. 8:52comes back to having that freedom right
253. 8:53and being able to kind of like go out
254. 8:55and explore and um buy our own bees yeah
255. 8:58exactly so so we also we just walked up
256. 9:00the road though and went and stocked up
257. 9:02at a local shop and they were $4 or four
258. 9:06$4 I think just slightly more expensive
259. 9:09than the we just walked them in with a
260. 9:10backpack and chucked them in our mini
261. 9:11fridge back here and then also when we
262. 9:13went to crab check those beers were
263. 9:15already $5 so again without the car you
264. 9:17wouldn't have been able to get better
265. 9:18food and you would have been able to get
266. 9:21better prices on things like alcohol
267. 9:23because otherwise you're kind of
268. 9:24isolated so there's this real trade-off
269. 9:26and I'm like such a um an over analyzer
270. 9:29when it comes to this stuff I could
271. 9:30split hairs and sit here and chat with
272. 9:31you for an hour about the pros the cons
273. 9:34the ifs the that's the other side and on
274. 9:35the flip side kind of stuff but you
275. 9:37probably not interested in all of those
276. 9:42things that would have been more had we
277. 9:45had access to better coffee look the
278. 9:48coffee here apart from on the coffee
279. 9:51tour is and at beach house at the I was
280. 9:55getting there sorry sorry like in the
281. 9:58hotels for example exle buffet breakfast
282. 10:01the coffee filtered coffee is not out to
283. 10:04our taste um but we were we were able to
284. 10:08find some good places for coffee The
285. 10:10Tipsy Italian really really surprised us
286. 10:14and also the best coffee we had was at
287. 10:16the project Collective I think there's
288. 10:18actually two of those on the on those um
289. 10:21but the one there's one right outside
290. 10:23beach house and yeah I walked to like
291. 10:26sat at the at the high bar to watch to
292. 10:28see how what was the what was her
293. 10:31process and it was it was legit she
294. 10:33clearly had training and the food sorry
295. 10:35the The Taste was really good the only
296. 10:37other cost that are in there is
297. 10:38basically stay drinking Coke Zeros and
298. 10:40feed you water oh yeah yeah true true
299. 10:44[Music]
300. 10:48that this one's for you snacks we spent
301. 10:52$14 and to be fair that was like two
302. 10:55bags of chips something like that I
303. 10:57don't know why I really pulled this out
304. 10:58but I think I was trying to show that
305. 10:59snacks are actually quite expensive but
306. 11:01we also did bring a box of protein bars
307. 11:04so that's a very good point and I
308. 11:06haven't really considered this but that
309. 11:07goes on hand with the budget situation
310. 11:10yeah cuz we were like maybe we don't
311. 11:11want to be spending lots of money on
312. 11:12snakes and we didn't yeah or eating
313. 11:14burgers for every single meal yeah the
314. 11:16chippies the imported chippies are
315. 11:18really expensive here so if you're like
316. 11:20us and you like to do the happy hour
317. 11:22with beersy and some chippies out on the
318. 11:24balcony or out on the beach you got to
319. 11:26save up yeah uh what was it was thinking
320. 11:29on the first video we went to a
321. 11:30supermarket so we shared some cost in
322. 11:32that one and
323. 11:34then what else was I thinking about gone
324. 11:38it's gone it's gone it's gone forever
325. 11:40but anyway what does that do get to in
326. 11:41terms of our total cost so seven nights
327. 11:44accommodation seven days of a car three
328. 11:47activities a reasonable amount of kind
329. 11:49of like food and beer outside of our
330. 11:51packages we spent a total of
331. 11:543,282 New Zealand doar it's pretty good
332. 11:58that's pretty good it was a really fun
333. 12:00week there were some some it would have
334. 12:02been a lot easier to just say yes to
335. 12:03everything and spend the money uh and we
336. 12:06probably tend to do that more in other
337. 12:08destinations when we're trying to create
338. 12:10interesting and fun content for you guys
339. 12:12but this was somewhat of a challenge eh
340. 12:15a little bit Yeah but I feel like we got
341. 12:17a good range of things like we saw a lot
342. 12:20of stuff one because we had the car
343. 12:21sorry we keep talking about that too
344. 12:23because we did really like diverse tours
345. 12:26we got to go to Islands we got to go
346. 12:28snorkling we got to meet locals we got
347. 12:29to do like outdoorsy stuff drink wild
348. 12:32coffee yeah um yeah I don't know where I
349. 12:35was going there well I suppose we were
350. 12:37going to come back to a couple of
351. 12:38questions so is it possible to travel on
352. 12:40a budget and I think the answer is yes
353. 12:41but the most fascinating thing that I
354. 12:43think we've learned is we'd kind of said
355. 12:45in our head there's there sort of uh a
356. 12:48quite a quite budget a mid-tier resort
357. 12:51which is where we are now and then
358. 12:52there's sort of the upper Market
359. 12:55dinner five star right but I think what
360. 12:58we figured out is this a fourth category
361. 12:59and that's what shocked me backpacking
362. 13:01backpacking would be so fun here yeah I
363. 13:04think it would be really really cool and
364. 13:05there were lots of people there you can
365. 13:07if you're say for example solo traveling
366. 13:09which there were heaps of people there
367. 13:11it's cool to have like a little bit of a
368. 13:13community like you're kind of in the
369. 13:14middle of nowhere out on the coral coast
370. 13:16and then to have all your friends and
371. 13:17buddies that people were kind of making
372. 13:19friends and stuff cool I don't know like
373. 13:21when I think of Fiji or when I thought
374. 13:23of Fiji before I'd been here I instantly
375. 13:25thought of dinner out and I thought of
376. 13:27Intercontinental
377. 13:29yeah like there's no other option like
378. 13:32that's just what you have to do but that
379. 13:33is so not true um but we kind of said if
380. 13:35you're a traveler yes if you're a
381. 13:36vacationer it's kind of different but we
382. 13:39we've kind of tackled that yeah I mean
383. 13:41if you're depends what you're into
384. 13:42exactly that's the thing like if you
385. 13:44don't really care about where you sleep
386. 13:45it's just a place to lay your head at
387. 13:46night and you just want to go out and do
388. 13:48things or lay by the pool and like be
389. 13:50outside then you definitely can but if
390. 13:52you like the Finer Things in life and
391. 13:54you're going to spend a bit of time in
392. 13:56your room then obviously you want to
393. 13:57step up a little bit well that's we had
394. 13:59one last question was what would you
395. 14:01gain from going another budget tier up
396. 14:03and we don't have that answer because if
397. 14:05we went higher than mid-range yeah you
398. 14:08mean yeah and that would be I mean we'd
399. 14:09love to come back and and figure that
400. 14:11out what does that step up in terms of
401. 14:13luxury in terms of room qualities in
402. 14:15terms of service levels in terms of food
403. 14:17in terms of price pools interes access
404. 14:19to more restaurants in a resort is a big
405. 14:21thing we were quite limited here yeah um
406. 14:24yeah that'd be really really interesting
407. 14:26to know what what that quality Step Up
408. 14:29differences but maybe that's for that's
409. 14:31for the next trip the last thing we were
410. 14:32going to do because we had a few
411. 14:33messages about this was a very quick if
412. 14:36we can and quickly was an accommodation
413. 14:38comparison between the we're not talking
414. 14:41about the uh hostel beds but the private
415. 14:43room versus booking a package Resort
416. 14:46like this maybe go General thoughts
417. 14:48what's your initial thoughts on the the
418. 14:49two Styles and cost is in like what I
419. 14:52liked better yeah just whatever comes to
420. 14:54mind I I surpris myself here I
421. 14:58personally
422. 14:59liked the Vibes of the budget Backpacker
423. 15:03Place way more than here and maybe that
424. 15:07comes down to like if you want to just
425. 15:09quickly go to the beach or go to the
426. 15:11pool you legit have to pack a bag here
427. 15:13and like make a trick do you know what I
428. 15:15mean like I know that sounds dumb but
429. 15:18like just being able to open your door
430. 15:19and be on the beach and be surrounded by
431. 15:22music and people and like but if we'd SP
432. 15:24more here we probably would have got
433. 15:25that anyway Nah The Vibes The Vibes The
434. 15:28Vibes different vies it's The Vibes
435. 15:30Vibes was one of the things which I
436. 15:31thought would sound really stupid but I
437. 15:33actually how to explain it I totally
438. 15:35agree but the pool was not as good the
439. 15:37beach in in the cheap place the beach
440. 15:39was probably not as good maybe a little
441. 15:42bit more isolated so obviously there's
442. 15:44trade offs in terms of value I think
443. 15:48this place is insane value if you if
444. 15:50you're getting a package deal and your
445. 15:52food is offset that is hug very
446. 15:55expensive here in general so to be able
447. 15:57to include every single me was pretty
448. 15:59crazy room quality is just Worlds Apart
449. 16:03we didn't really want to spend much time
450. 16:06in our room at beach house whereas here
451. 16:08at the p resort as you can see if you
452. 16:10watched other video you know as well
453. 16:12this is more much nicer this is a not a
454. 16:15suite really but it's apartment it's
455. 16:17apartment is and balcony and yeah just
456. 16:20more just more space space to explore
457. 16:23and more zones that you can hang out in
458. 16:25when you kind of restricted on the SP
459. 16:27the the place was so dark yeah and also
460. 16:29we had no hot water I don't know if that
461. 16:31was just an air in our room I'm pretty
462. 16:32sure it said on our listing we were
463. 16:34supposed to have hot water in the dorm
464. 16:35showers either no um so massive upgrade
465. 16:39here the I want to take the shower home
466. 16:41it's so good and it's a double-head guy
467. 16:44we said Paul we said Vibes Wi-Fi was
468. 16:47almost unusable at beach house for the
469. 16:49Backpackers and here it's not fast it's
470. 16:52only between two and four M down and it
471. 16:55drops off questionable at times but we
472. 16:57were able to watch you know you and
473. 16:59whatever else and streaming was good
474. 17:02food well that one's debatable which is
475. 17:05better I know what's that I like the
476. 17:07food at beach house better but I think
477. 17:09you should explain what it was about it
478. 17:11why why it was a winner why it was
479. 17:13better there yeah well I think because
480. 17:15they're catering on a small scale there
481. 17:18um that the quality was I mean to be
482. 17:22fair burgers are good everywhere so I'm
483. 17:24I'm talking about burgers burgers were
484. 17:25good here and there but they did local
485. 17:28food really well there so fish curries
486. 17:31and things like that were delicious and
487. 17:33well priced whereas here I feel like
488. 17:35it's on a bigger scale was really good
489. 17:38and if you don't know there's a big
490. 17:39Indian kind of culture scene influence
491. 17:42in in Fiji so when we're when we're
492. 17:44saying the local food we're mostly
493. 17:45talking about curries and um D yeah
494. 17:49happy hour comparison I mean pricing was
495. 17:53the same for beers wasn't it yeah I
496. 17:55think so pricing was the same but the
497. 17:57other place game vied check was that
498. 17:59there was always music playing and
499. 18:00because it's smaller everybody is
500. 18:03generally in around a smaller area
501. 18:04whereas here people were much more
502. 18:06spread out and they didn't tend to have
503. 18:07music on and sometimes they play the
504. 18:08same song Twice
505. 18:10yeah sunsets over like just down a bit
506. 18:14just a bit further up yeah I don't know
507. 18:16that's a weird comparison though
508. 18:17honestly it's beer it's good we're happy
509. 18:19during any happy hour yeah um yeah and
510. 18:23that's kind of the comparison that we
511. 18:25that we had was that helpful was that
512. 18:27interesting were you surprised
513. 18:29are you
514. 18:30surprised um I'm surprised by The
515. 18:32Backpacker thing yeah um and that you
516. 18:35like if if you came to this video to be
517. 18:37like can you travel Fiji on a budget the
518. 18:38answer is yes you can and we might have
519. 18:43flip-flopped around that but that is the
520. 18:45that is the answer that is our final
521. 18:47answer yes lock it in lock it in
522. 18:56[Music]